(Part 4) The good citizens of Bnext shook their heads with disgust at the pair, and their numerous fellow trolls. Solonoid raised a finger, or rather a wing. “So you couldn’t see them until you unmuted them? Isn’t that really dangerous?” “Not at all,” Hylebos said. “As DeeJ would probably say: reality is perception. When I mute them, they’re just not there for me. They don’t affect me in any way.” “The power to shape your experience is in your hands,” DeeJ added, his voice booming from Arcadia. “Don’t like what someone says? Hit the mute button, and they will be silenced forever, totally invisible to you until you decide otherwise.” “wat if i dont decide other wise” “WHAT IS DECIDE?” “Then they will remain muted until the end of time,” DeeJ replied, ignoring screamy watsisface because I muted him a few days ago. “Right,” BaconShelf concluded. “So I can just…” The Reach marine raised her hands to the monstrosities and wiggled her fingers. He blinked. “Woah. And they’re just… not there in my reality?” “Exactly,” Hylebos replied. “And what about everyone else’s?” “Still very much there, unless they mute them.” “So how does that work, then?” “Space magic,” DeeJ summarised. “Or rather, when we banished people in the past-” “You can just say ‘banned’, you know.” “Exiled them from this glorious realm, their shadows remained; it was as though other members were arguing with ghosts. Not Ghosts. Nor indeed Ghosts.” “Hah!” Tartan lol’d. “Because the Halo vehicle and the Destiny-” “Yuh-huh.” Faliz rolled his eyes behind Noble 6’s visor. “Right,” Bacon said again. “So everyone else still interacts with them but they just aren’t here for us?” “Precisely,” Hylebos said. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have some… Mentorship stuff to be doing. Not playing the beta early. No.” The Spiker disappeared in a puff of sevens. “Well, then,” Tartan beamed. “If it’s in our power to make the forums a better place for ourselves…” He raised a hand and clicked his fingers. Somewhere, several miles away, the TARDIS door opened. “Killjoy,” Lemon snorted. “I’m leaving my floodgates wide open for whale-sized bait to toy with. ...Shut up, Logfish, you insufferable idiot.” “Wait, what did he say?!” Tartan cried. “Lemme see! Lemme see!” Other Floodians and *snort* Offtopites looked skyward with varying degrees of concentration followed by relief, then boredom, then tentative eagerness before laughing heartily again. Many watched as the skies cleared, only to be once more repopulated with hopeless halfwits hammering their heads against the sky trench, their foreheads red with abuse and fury as they attempted to crack the impenetrable barrier. risay_117 rustled up some popcorn. “And these wars, they can’t be won,” ash55 smirked knowingly. “Does anyone know or care how they begun?” “Now then,” Pureey mused, “I understand we have a ….#garning. I mean #gaming. For gaming. Could you direct me, Hylebos? Or DeeJ?” “Any thread labelled #gaming,” DeeJ explained. Pureey turned the Wraith around… okay, there were go, 180 degrees ...scanning the crowds that had begun to gather out of the formless mass, now not actually quite so formless, really. Nearby, Aaron stood, holding a sign asking about any good T-rated scifi games, tagged underneath with #gaming, as well as spiffy talking to some folks about the best aliens of all time, and a large discussion was being hosted by a black and white figure in Emile’s armour from Reach, Death, talking about the most useless weapons you’ve played with. “It still is pretty formless, really,” Pureey remarked, making random gestures with his hands. Or rather, signifying randomness with his gestures. You know what I mean. All inside the Wraith so that only I could see. And now you lot too. “Agreed,” DTL sighed. “It would be good to have a way to see this all much more clearly, all at once… maybe… an ….Omni-Topic forum.” “You are in the All Topic Forum,” Achronos breathed, having finally recovered from throwing up a mother-blam!-ing nuke. “And a formless mess it is,” Space Beaver cyniced. “Then we need to make sense of it,” Plasma Eagle declared. “I know!” realised Adjective Animal. “We can build a tower, to keep watch!” Not really: there’s nobody called Adjective Animal. “How about we build a tower, to keep watch,” Dropship suggested, leaving Adjective Animal’s fictitious face looking discontented. “We can use my dropship business, Dropship Enterprises, which will make me [i]rich beyond[/i]- ...what I am now.” “Or we could hole up in Arcadia,” IngloriousWho suggested. “Depending on when we are, we might bump into Clara. A little too conveniently…” “Well, given that the Time War is happening outside the sky trench,” Butane replied. “I’m gonna say she’s… well, in the space barn, actually.” Inglorious was gone in the blink of an eye. “Well, if Bungie is working in the city, then I doubt Jerome will let us in,” randomrosso reasoned readily. “Then we shall tKE IT BY FORCE!” Leprechaun declared, raising a fist. “I mean take it BY FORCE! Hit caps instead of a.” “Or we could just let Dropship get on with that plan of his,” Verbatim suggested. “He’s on the phone.” “...Alright, so I’ll see you guys down Asylum tonight? Awesome. It’s gonna be -blam!-ing insane. See ya.” Dropship pressed the red phone on his screen or the red button on his phone or flipped it shut, I don’t know how his phone works, and turned back to everyone. “...What’s up?” There was an alien huff from amidst the crowd. Several people parted as a gold Elite Ranger from Reach strode through the mass. “If you’re going to piss off to be outside with people, then I’ll build the t-” “Woah, woah, Master Builder,” Achilles noticed. “You’ve been banned until November.” He snap- clicked his fingers, and the Forerunner wearing Elite armour, apparently, disappeared. “What about MasterBuilder?” asked ROBERTO jh. “Yeah,” Inglorious added, voice muffled between Jenna-Louise Coleman’s breasts. “He’s an oldfoman. Tarty only goes for oldfomans.” Foman sighed. “...Why are you yelling from all the way back there anyway?” “Because Tartan just looked at the Flood for someone who actually says oldfoman, and there I was. Now, leave me be, I have Clara to be coitusing.” “We’ll leave you be if you stop calling out,” Funkbrotha10 returned. There was no response. “Well, there we go.” Tartan rolled his eyes. “Am I the only one who thinks old/newfoman is stupid and just wants to get old/newsnowman trending instead?” “DO YOU WANNA BUILD A SNOWMAN?! Okay, back to Clara.” “So, hwta was all the fuss about?” Dropship asked. “I mean, what was all the fuss about?” “You,” Hatima replied. “I guess you’re not gonna build the tower after all.” Dropship frowned. “Why wouldn’t I?” “Maybe because it’s time for IGN’s beta stream,” Tartan announced. “In two minutes. Cut! We’ll be back later, everyone.”